Vison of Life...It speaks about my views towards what's happening around us, though many of the things represents Pune, a becoming Metro in Maharashtra,India yet most of us live in similar city life. In city day to day life all we face is problems around us; from traffic to water to slums to power supply & many more, but who has solutions? That's why the name
Vison of Life!
Sanjay Deshpande

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

PMC Goes Private?

“It’s
not about no money, it’s about the attitude to spend it is what decides whether
it’s a good government or bad”…

Mr. Arvind
Kejriwal.

No
need to introduce the Delhi’s common man’s Chief Minister though many may not like
his erratic behavior a times but sometimes he does makes sense & in his
above quote I do find one! Why I remembered his words is our dear PMC i.e. Pune
Municipal Corporation which is our city’s governing civic body always makes me
wonder by the headlines it makes in news papers. This is the time when entire
city has being painted in Smartness Mission, but the recent news which made to
front page about the city was definitely alarming; it said that PMC has been
short of funds & many development works budgets will have to be cut down or
else there won’t be enough money for even salaries of the staff at the year
end! That’s really shocking as on one side we are trying to make Pune as number
one city in country & on other hand if we are not able to make proper
budget or generate enough funds for various tasks then all the efforts will go in
vein. On the very day which carried this news, there was one more news which in
both ways was concerning to me i.e. as subject wise as well it was about a road
on which I reside. It said the said roads work was abruptly stopped as it has
been started without having any budgetary provision as well without taking
consideration the residents along the road. Also the road was in perfect shape
& no need was there to concrete it, this I will also vouch as I use the
same road & it was one of the better roads in city construction wise. Yet
some one up in PMC thought that it has to be concretized & started suddenly
digging the existing road & now the situation is since last month the road
work has been stopped & entire traffic in patches is being operated via
half road width causing all sorts of the road blocks as well small accidents
too!

And
then there is one more head line saying most of the PMC’s work will be outsourced
i.e. given to separate company on which PMC i.e. general body i.e. all the
elected members won’t have any control, at least the news says so! First two
news might have made headlines but they are routine for all of us as well our
rulers. Each day the incomplete works as well some or other laps of duty keeps
PMC in news but that isn’t taken seriously by our local rulers but this news i.e.
PMC going private for major development work surely stirred rather shake them
up as this is direct attack on their power! Let’s understand first what is role
of PMC & its general body in every single rupee spent which decides fate of
this city. Well as we all know PMC Commissioner makes a budget for every year
along with his team & this budget includes provision for many infrastructural
works like new roads, water treatment plants, drainage treatment plants,
distribution & then civic structures such as hospitals, sports facilities
& many more. Then there is maintenance as well uplifting of the existing systems
including public transport to road maintenance & then there are salaries of
the staff which takes major part of the budget. This budget has to be approved
by the general body & before that its goes through standing committee i.e.
a committee where every party’s representation is there & any spending head
as well money allocation for the same this committee decides. And then only the
individual department carries out the works under this approved budgetary
provision.

Now
the problem is if a separate company is formed & all the major projects
which are essential for so called smartness of the city are controlled by this company
then what will be role of standing committee or even the elected members &
here is real tussle. And not only the elected members, the nexus between few of
the officers, contractors & the elected members is something the city is so
used now that due to this nexus many projects have been incomplete over the
years & the budget is overspent & at the same time many unnecessary
projects have been undertaken & money is being spent which in a way is
waste of public money but who cares! Take example of present rampage road
concreting, even the smallest of the lanes where no traffic is there also being
concretized & with no quality norms being followed like making proper base.
And where there isn’t concreting there every alternate month it’s like Tom
& Jerry show where the cat keeps chasing the mice first the road
departments comes and makes tarring of the surface & immediately right from
drainage to water to storm water departments move in & when they are done then
comes Mahanagar Gas Nigam to Optic Fiber companies & dug the road; again
the road department redo it & the game is on!

If
this is condition of simple routine maintenance works then one can imagine the
major infra projects situation in the city! The flyovers at Swargate & at
Sanchheti hospital, even god has given up about their completion target &
the projects which are complete like the Y over bridge at Magarpatta or Z
bridge on river at Deccan, even the creators acknowledges its faulty design
& problem the structures are creating in traffic than solving it!

I think
some two years back hype was created about biggest tender floating elevated road
from Kharadi to Warje & was supposed to go from river bed or along the
river bed something like that; what’s its present status, no one is saying a
word about it! Same is about HCMTR i.e. high capacity mass transport route,
which is part of development plan since 1987 but yet to see the day light! Then the infamous BRT & each month new
announcement for its operating, the joke is in a recent advertise I saw in a
cinema hall, they are still showing animated film about BRT & appealing
citizens to use BRT but why can’t they show what’s actual scene of BRTS
function? Simple if they show actual BRT especially at Satara road or Hadapasar
road as then it will expose the failure of the project itself. Agreed at
some routes BRT is successful but in comparison to total city’s demand, success
ratio is negligible is a fact! Then comes the Mega Project named Metro, such is
its speed that this year’s central govt budget has hardly mere ten crore rupees
provision for the same! All those who are shouting on the top of head of having
politics in it should answer first what has happened to last year’s budget provision?
Till now even the route common man doesn’t knows & if it’s from karve road
then what will happen to existing traffic till the Metro gets completed, no one
has any answer to such questions; as in the back of mind most of the concerned
people seems to know that Metro is never going to happen in this city, so why
to bother to answer the questions about it!

Apart
from roads & flyovers, the city needs water lines as the supply is limited
& population ever soaring & then treating the used water i.e. drainage
treatment plants as well drainage linens works. Also remember when you have last
seen a new public play ground or sports facility or cultural facility being
built? OK, leave that & ask about the public health scene for the poor
& middle class! Education not just primary but higher is another concern
with bad condition of schools & very less numbers of colleges.Ask what is happening to city greening as
well the biodiversity parks reservations as they are our only hope to reduce
heat island effect, courtesy tons of gasses emitted from millions of vehicles
exhausts! I walk most of the time from my residence in patwardhan baug to FC
road, Vaishali & in the stretch of some five odd kilometers there aren’t
even ten big trees all along karve road & at Deccan, no wonder the summers
are getting hotter every passing year!

A smart city is not just good traffic
management but it’s where all such aspects of life’s daily needs too are taken
care! Here one will wonder where the real estate is concerned with above
issues, well if all such points are taken care, in & around the city then
only affordable home’s dream is going to be possible. As affordable housing doesn’t mean just low
initial costs but lesser day to day expenses also & this won’t be possible
without PMC’s infrastructure in proper place. Here is where the privatization
of all the major infrastructure works is a must as all those who cry foul over
losing the control on infrastructure works, to all of them I will ask a question, who has stopped the
existing set up from completing all above needs of the city & its resident
for last so many years? Take example of Nagpur where major infra
works are being carried out under control of NIT i.e. Nagpur Improvement Trust
or even Mumbai where works like Metro or Sea Link Bridge are being undertaken
by MMRDA i.e. Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority & in both
cases the local Municipal Corporation is not involved in any way yet nothing
has gone wrong there!

With
due respect to intentions of all those who are opposing to sublet all major
infra works towards the private company, lets understand that the common
citizen doesn’t care who controls what! Already he is stressed enough with
problems of traffic to water, so all he expects is a decent surrounding & committed
approach of the rulers towards the same. I think this much the residents of the
city deserves in lieu of the property tax they pays to our beloved PMC!